Dr. MaRcy L. Paul

The Board of Directors of the the Jewish Federation of Arkansas is excited to announce the hiring of Marcy L. Paul, PhD as the Federation's next Executive Director.

Marcy brings many years of experience as a connector of people and places to her new role with JFAR. Marcy’s career has mostly been in academia as a faculty and staff member at Indiana University in Bloomington and TCU and the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth, Texas.

It was during her time in Fort Worth that Marcy became involved with the Jewish Federation. This experience led to the realization that the next part of her career would focus on the Jewish community. Marcy served first as the Senior Director of the Jewish Community Relations Council in Dayton, Ohio where she provided essential outreach to the Greater Dayton community on topics including antisemitism, Jewish holiday awareness, and Upstander training. Next she served as the Director of Partnerships2Gether Central U.S. Consortium, a program of Jewish Federations of North America and the Jewish Agency for Israel. In this role Marcy facilitated the connections between 17 Jewish communities across the U.S. and communities in the Western Galilee and Budapest, Hungary.

Marcy is excited by the many wonderful possibilities offered by a statewide federation. "Arkansas is such a beautiful state with so much going on to connect people in many different ways. Already I have met wonderful people who have the same commitment to our Jewish Peoplehood and I want to be a part of this and it's BaSheret that I will be a part of all Jewish Arkansas."

Marcy has traveled the world in her quest to connect people and places. She loves good conversations with intentional focus and listening. But she also enjoys her quiet time for her research, reading, and listening to the hum of her sewing machine creating textile art.

Marcy will be starting January 15, 2024 and we look forward to welcoming her to the community. We are excited for everyone to meet her in the coming months.